Steve Butka is a student at UNE Online in the Health Informatics program. He was kind enough to answer a few questions recently about his experience as a student, the challenges, and highlights of the Health Informatics program, and some advice for incoming students. What drew you toward earning a degree in Health Informatics? I am currently working in the…

Melanie Berdyck is a dietitian and student in the UNE Online Master’s of Science in Applied Nutrition program. We spoke to Melanie recently about her work, her online graduate school experience, and her thoughts about the Applied Nutrition program. What encouraged you to pursue your Master’s in Applied Nutrition? I earned my Bachelor’s of Science in Dietetics in 2008, and I’ve…

The Master of Science in Applied Nutrition program at UNE Online is a 36 credit-hour program that can be completed in as little as two years. It is 100% online, with no campus visits required, and no GRE is required for admission. Our program offers four optional focus areas in various aspects of nutrition. What you’ll get with your Master…

“People with a fixed mindset believe that their traits are set in stone – they have a certain amount of intelligence and nothing will change that. The opposite of this is the growth mindset – people see their qualities as things that they can develop through effort and practice” (Gallagher, 2014, their emphasis). According to Carol Dweck, Growth Mindset is…

Now is the time to earn an MSW. The future is bright for social workers as the field of social work evolves to accommodate the ever-changing needs of vulnerable populations. Political turbulence, climate disasters, widening class divides, an increasing emphasis on mental health—these have all combined to open and solidify, a promising job market for social workers. As different populations…

Health informatics has definitely been, and will continue to be, making headlines. From wearables and artificial intelligence to data acquisition and analysis and everything in between, health IT is ubiquitous. In 2018, as technology becomes more integrated into healthcare, the following look to be the top trends in health IT for 2018: Smart Hospitals 2018 will mark the push from…

Last week at UNE Online’s first ever Online Learning Symposium         , I had the opportunity to share our goal of creating learning experiences and assessments that are not only rigorous and research-based, but also authentic to real work and real life, so that when our students leave us, they have the tools to use their knowledge…

Education Legislation Through the Decades In December of 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002.  This reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) attempted to address some of the issues that made No Child Left Behind a source of challenge and frustration for many…

You could say it’s in her DNA. An Oklahoma Sauk Native, Dee Manatowa inherited her passion for social work along with a devotion to environmental justice. Her father—the late Chief Elmer Manatowa Jr. of the Sac and Fox Nation in Stroud, Oklahoma—instilled in her a love for all people and the Earth. As a tribal member, Dee knows all too…

Dr. Jayne Pelletier is the Director of Accreditation and Policy for the College of Graduate and Professional Studies (CGPS). She oversees the accreditation process and policy development to support the operational and academic processes of online programs. In short, Dr. Pelletier makes sure we are compliant with accreditation standards and that we provide an outstanding education to students. This post…

Social work and human trafficking are linked in that social workers have a unique and valuable role in the fight against human trafficking, helping victims and fostering a greater understanding around the issue. Victims of human trafficking A 15-year-old runaway in a rural roadside motel. A middle-aged man picking tomatoes in a Georgia field. A twenty-something woman babysitting children at…

The most recent update to Blackboard, over break, included an update to its inline grading functionality. To cover the new features in this tool—which allows for student work to be read, graded, and even commented on within Blackboard, without forcing you to download—we turned to our fearless peers, Susan Graham-Rent and Susan Hyde, who delivered an excellent webinar on the…

PDFs (Portable Document Format), with their platform-neutral openability and read-only format, have become one of our most useful tools for saving and sharing documents, and are a common feature in online as well as face-to-face courses (read this article for more on the interesting history of PDFs). However, they can present challenges for some users, especially for those who are…

What are the next steps after sex trafficking or domestic violence? Social workers help people regain their independence and reintegrate into society after escaping domestic violence or sex trafficking. How social workers help those who’ve escaped domestic violence or sex trafficking make the transition and heal For people who have experienced sex trafficking or domestic violence, escaping their dangerous circumstances…

UNE Online’s Graduate Programs in Public Health (GPPH) recently held our first Volunteer Week challenge! Our goal was to encourage UNE students and public health professionals everywhere to facilitate meaningful community service activities with a public health focus. The UNE GPPH community shared photos of how they gave back this season, and we created a special Facebook album, titled #uneonlinegivesback…

Recently, Leanne DiMaio was asked to be the subject matter expert and course designer for a brand new course within the Masters of Science in Applied Nutrition program, ‘Nutrition, Wellness, and Multimedia Communication.’ Leanne has been a course facilitator in the UNE Online MPH program since 2012, directly after graduating from the MPH program herself. She earned her MBA from…

The University of New England has been named to Forbes’ list of America’s Top Colleges, a list that Forbes says is “The 600+ schools well worth the investment.” Forbes bases their list of the top schools on each school’s output, or in other words, what students are getting out of their college education in terms of earning power, student satisfaction,…

APHA 2017 was a HUGE success! This year the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting and Expo was held in Atlanta, GA and there were more than 12,000 public health professionals from around the world in attendance, including our very own UNE Online Graduate Programs in Public Health (GPPH) faculty, staff, students and alumni. This year’s Annual Meeting theme…

A good story generally contains the following elements: Protagonist: The hero (or anti-hero) of the narrative. Central premise: The argument or thesis of the story. Backstory: The context of the story. Conflict: The challenges faced by the protagonist. Narrative arc: The chronological movement of the story. Should any of these be missing, readers will find the story lacking, though they…

One of my favorite features on my iPhone is the Maps App. I lost my beloved DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer several moves (and states) ago. I don’t have a GPS in my car. I’ve often found myself lost in many an unfamiliar part of a town when traveling for work or even pleasure. There is something very comforting in saying,…

Back in March, my colleague Olga wrote about authentic assessment. In her post, she noted “you scaffold the assignments (activities) and put together course materials necessary to help students do their best in achieving the desired result.” In this Vision post, we’ll take a look at how scaffolding and formative assessment can foster student success throughout your courses. Together, scaffolding and…

Final projects make or break a course. A good final project incorporates everything the student has learned in the course. It lends structure and meaning to the assignments that precede it, and it offers the student a chance to demonstrate mastery of course material in a way that is authentic to the subject matter. In an introductory nutrition course, for…

In past posts, we have discussed how to create rubrics, why we use rubrics at UNE, and how to use rubrics in Blackboard. This particular post will focus on the different types of rubrics one may encounter and what they look like. There are three main types of rubrics: holistic, analytic, and a love child of the two that we’ll…

We have been talking on and off about essential questions with Chris. Just the other day, because I am facilitating an online course about online course development (yup, I am!), a participant in the course submitted a syllabus with an essential question in it, and this was such a joyous moment that I had to capitalize on it and spread…